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I am a Myk Freedman. You are maybe a Myk Freedman too, but you maybe are not. Lap steel guitarist Myk Freedman is definitely THE Myk Freeman, and he put a band together some years ago to play his amazing songs. Myk has two full books of one page songs that can be played in a variety of styles at a variety of tempos, and still work to make you feel things. A year ago, to the day, we recorded this music in Brooklyn. That day (and most days) the Myk Freedman’s were Myk Freedman (lap steel guitar), Patrick Breiner (reeds), Kenny Warren (trumpet), Jason Vance (banjo/spoons), myself on bass, and Carlo Costa (drums). You’ll notice many frequent collaborators in there, which is a good sign for a great recording. The record came out today, exactly one year after it was recorded. It is good and it is different and I think many of you out there will enjoy it. Feel free to take a few free listens via Bandcamp. If you like what you hear I recommend buying it.

The very fine people at happylucky no. 1 records (mainly and completely Liane Fredel, who paid for the recording, musicians, pressing, and did the amazing art and layout herself) did a great thing for us by putting out this record. We’d love to pay them back in some small part by selling a few of these and getting it heard by the world. I hope you enjoy it! If you do, please spread the word. You can check it all out here:

A long-standing band of mine, Party Pack Ice, recorded an album last year. The playing on the record sounds great, and I’m currently working with Nathaniel Morgan to finish the mixes. We should have a finished product by the Spring time. One of my favorite tracks on the album had two versions that I really loved, but it didn’t make sense to have the same song on the album twice. So I have released the alternate take of a song called The Stephanies via Bandcamp. Please enjoy the track free of charge! It was mixed and rough mastered by Nathaniel Morgan, and features these awesome musicians:

I had an amazing time premiering my new quartet (which will hopefully soon have a better name!) at the Evolving Music Series. The fine people who run Vision Fest run this series weekly on Monday nights, and the lineups are always worth checking out. I’d highly recommend checking the calendar and catching a show…a nice audience, and very well organized! You can check out their schedule HERE.

And some new music! This quartet is brand new and features Anna Webber and Ed Rosenberg on tenor saxophones, myself on bass, and Jason Nazary on drums.

As the year comes to a close (an amazing year in so many ways…including getting engaged to an amazing person!) I have just two more concerts, both on December 30, that I am supremely excited for. Just wanted to give a heads up…much more to come in 2013! The Birkfest concert makes the first time I’ve ever performed with my mentor Michael Formanek and my very good friend John Dierker. Then later that night I’ll join John in a tradition that takes place annually at the Red Room. Details:

The Party Pack ICE performance last night was super fun…so much fun that I don’t think we’ll ever return to just being the trio of Party Pack. Huge thanks to Aryeh Kobrinsky for putting the night together…two awesome bands followed us, and it was a great night of music all around. PP ICE is Eric Trudel & Patrick Breiner-tenors, Dustin Carlson-guitar, AH-bass, compositions, and Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums. Here’s the full set in mp3 format…feel free to download and pass along to a friend. Enjoy!

It’s be a little while since my last post, and a lot of exciting stuff has happened in the meantime. I had the pleasure of joining the Elina Duni Quartet (an amazing Swiss band on ECM records) for a week-long US tour which ended in a hurricane. It was a great experience to perform with such a talented group of people, and get to know them personally. I hope to have the opportunity to play music with them again in the near future.

The Lubbock record is now completely mixed by Jake Leckie, and it sounds awesome. If you need any kind of recording work done in the Baltimore area (studio or live audio) this is your guy. The recording quality is top-notch, and the mixing he was able to do with very little time is perfect for the record. We’re hoping to get it mastered and do a few blowout release shows in Spring 2013. I’m very proud of this record.

Some other great shows were mixed in over the course of the past few months, and I have some upcoming that I’m really excited about. The most immediate is the debut performance by Party Pack ICE. This is an ensemble I’ve been trying to put together for the last year and I just recently completed the arrangements and started rehearsing the band. It is the normal trio of Party Pack (Dustin Carlson-guitar, AH-bass, & Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums) but with the addition of my two favorite tenor players Eric Trudel and Patrick Breiner. We’ll be playing Friday, November 30 at Douglass Street Music Collective as part of Aryeh Kobrinsky’s Nowt Nite. This is a great series that Aryeh curates monthly. The most exciting part of the series is that he live steams it, so you can watch from anywhere in the world! It will also be available via iTunes as a podcast in the next week or so. If you’d like to check it out live just tune into the link below at 8:00p on Friday, November 30. Party Pack ICE is first, so get there early and stay late.

Friday 12/7–I’ll be premiering my new trio with Anna Webber-sax and Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums. All new compositions that I’ve written over the past couple of months just for these two musicians. We’ll be playing at iBeam on Friday 12/7 at 9:30p.

Monday 12/10 & Tuesday 12/11–I’ll be part of a 96-hour improvisation put together by the Music Factory. It is an ambitious idea and I can’t wait to contribute (and see who I’ll be performing with at noon on a Monday!) You can check out what they’re doing at newlanguages.org.

Thursday 12/13–I’ll be participating in a large ensemble experiment put together by Josh Sinton at Douglass Street Music Collective. Details forthcoming about this performance, but I am very excited about it. I respect Josh so much as a musician that I’d trust anything he puts together!

Sunday 12/16–Out of Your Head Brooklyn has been going strong for almost a year, and the last one of the year will be my first one performing! I’ve had so many people interested in the series that I just didn’t schedule myself to play. As part of Josh Sinton’s curatorial run he insisted that I perform, and I’m excited to do so with a quintet of Ed Rosenberg & Nathaniel Morgan-reeds, Dave Miller-guitar, AH-bass, and Martin Urbach-drums. Thanks Josh, that’s an awesome band! OOYH is every 1st and 3rd Sunday at Freddy’s Bar and Backroom, 627 5th Ave, South Slope.

Wednesday 12/19–Danny Gouker‘s Signal Problems take on the Branded Saloon in Prospect Heights. This will be our last performance before we go into the studio in early January to record the band’s debut record.

Thursday 1/24–This is the BIG ONE! My Baltimore-based band Quartet Offensive will be reuniting after a bit of a (unintentional) hiatus to share a bill with JERSEYBAND! Don’t need to say much else about this one. It’s at the Ottobar and if you’re in Baltimore I can’t recommend it highly enough. Those guys.

Wednesday 1/30–Denial & Error will be putting it back together as part of Oscar Noriega’s Palimpsestic Series at Barbes in Brooklyn. I was sad to have to miss the most recent gig with this band because of the ECM tour. Excited to be doing it again! The band is Kate Pittman-drums, compositions, Josh Reed-trumpet, Landon Knoblock-rhodes, and AH-bass. Kate Pittman writes great music, and I have a great time playing it with her. This set start at 8:00p at Barbes.

I came to the realization today that I have a lot of performances scheduled for the next two weeks that I’m very excited about. Some old bands, some new bands, some old music series’, some new music series’…all of which I think will be good! So here are some select music performances that I think you may enjoy. Hope to see you out, and thanks for the continued support!

Saturday 4/14: Signal Problems @ 285 Midwood, 285 Midwood, Brooklyn NY, Danny Gouker-trumpet, compositions; Eric Trudel-sax; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 8:00p–Excited to be a part of the Midwood music series again! It is a great, relaxed environment to enjoy music. Pot luck at 7pm, music starts at 8pm, and never a cover charge.

Sunday 4/15: Out of Your Head Brooklyn (curating) @ Freddy’s Bar, 627 5th Ave, Brooklyn NY, 9:30p, suggested donation, outofyourhead.org, freddysbar.com–I’m really happy with how well-received the OOYH series has been in Brooklyn, and have been consistently blown away by the quality of these performances. This is the last performance of this cycle…all new schedule coming soon for May/June/July/August. Set One at 9:30p, Set Two at 11p, No Cover! Performing will be Kenny Warren, Jake Henry, Danny Gouker, Jonah Parzen-Johnson, Ryan Mackstaller, Dave Miler, Noah Garabedian. Devin Drobka, and Matt Rousseau.

Wednesday 4/18: Achilles Kallergis’ American Quintet @ The Grotto, 100 Forsyth St, NY NY, Eric Trudel-sax; Danny Gouker-trumpet; Achilles Kallergis-guitar; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 9:30p–This band is a collective effort, with each musician contributing compositions. I love these guys! No cover, one long set starting at 9:30p.

Thursday 4/19: Dustin Carlson Quintet @ The Firehouse Space, 246 Frost Street, Brooklyn NY, Dustin Carlson-banjo, composition; Nathaniel Morgan-clarinet; Shannon Barnett-trombone; Mariel Berger-accordian; AH-bass, 8p, $5, thefirehousespace.org–My good friend, and fellow Party Packer Dustin Carlson wrote a chamber piece. This group of amazing musicians will be premiering it at the Firehouse Space, which is a great new venue located in Williamsburg.

and later that night…

Turn Around Norman @ Brooklyn Speakeasy Music Series, Williamsburg Music Center, 367 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn NY, Cam Collins-sax; JJ Wright-keyboards; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 9p, weturnaround.com–It might be a little while before Turn Around Norman performs again (as JJ is starting grad school at Notre Dame in June) but I’m VERY MUCH looking forward to the two performances we have in April. We’ll be playing original compositions from our album “We Turn Around,” and to be totally honest this band is way better live! The Brooklyn Speakeasy Music series, curated by Jonathan Lindhorst promises to be one of the most exciting new music series’ in Brooklyn…we’re really happy to be a part of it.

Wednesday 4/25: Turn Around Norman @ The Grotto, 100 Forsyth St, NY NY, Cam Collins-sax; JJ Wright-keyboards; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 9:30p, weturnaround.com–And one more TAN gig at the Grotto. This will be a mix of our music and some of our favorite jazz standards. No cover!